The city will be divided into seven distinct sectors - a Lifescape, an Eco-Valley, a Solarscape, an Urbanscape, a Windscape, an Earthscape and Eco-Corridors.

Eco-City will make use of the latest sustainable technologies such as solar power, wind power, rainwater recycling, and wastewater treatment/desalination of sea water. In order to reduce the city’s carbon emissions, residents will be encouraged to use an advanced light rail system, and China has also pledged that 90 percent of traffic within the city will be public transport. The development also features some beautiful public green spaces.

The city will be divided into seven distinct sectors – a Lifescape, an Eco-Valley, a Solarscape, an Urbanscape, a Windscape, an Earthscape and Eco-Corridors. Surrounded by greenery, the Lifescape will consist of a series of soil-topped mounds that will counteract the towering apartment buildings of the other communities. To the north of the Lifescape, the Solarscape will act as the administrative and civic center of the Eco-City. Demonstrating the concept of a compact, multilayered city, the Urbanscape will be the core of the Eco-City, featuring stacked programs interconnected by sky-bridges at multiple levels to make efficient use of vertical space. In contrast to the Urbanscape, the Earthscape will act as a sort of suburb of the city, with stepped architecture that will maximize public green space. Last but not least, the Windscape will transform Qingtuozi, a century-old village surrounded by a small lake, into a venue for citizens to relax and recreate.

Very interesting, from a planning perspective. I wonder to what extent the Chinese government will phase the massive infrastructure costs for this. For any non-centralized western nations to attempt anything close to this would likely require very careful phasing of public with private investment. Also, US experience with new towns indicates that the location of such a new city within regional markets would be very important to insure the success of new jobs coming into such a brand new location (unless mandated by the central govt). Being closer to existing metro areas has always fared better than more remote locations.

noiseGreenJanuary 10, 2011 at 4:00 pm

Interesting.. the sky is blue in images. During my 3 month stay in the town I think I saw a blue sky twice. Let’s hope they start by cleaning up the industry before they build the eco-city.